Falling a Thousand Beats Per Second
by Sam.My.Jackson.Spoon
Summary: AU 'It took her a bit too long to register what he told her, "You're Ashi-what?" She stopped struggling, her fingers still curled under a few of his own on her wrist. "Ashikabi." He stated, taking a step closer to her, she took one backward as her back hit the closed doors to the elevator.' OCxFLOCK WARNING LEMONS and YURI and YOAI and everything in between.


**AU**

**Standard Disclaimer applied.**

* * *

"Yoshida Enterprises is not interested in selling, Hiroto-san." The woman at the head of the conference table stated with a frown on her pretty face. Her dark blue eyes watched Hiroto from the other side of the table with wariness and barely hidden anger.

"Ah, but Yoshida-san, I haven't even given my pitch." He pushed up his glasses from the middle of the frames, then swept his grey windswept hair out of his face.

Yoshida crossed her arms underneath her ample breasts, her lips pulling into a sneer, "Please, what would the CEO of MBI be doing in coming to our facility meeting when there are plenty of rumors that MBI has been slowly buying out the smaller companies that reside here in Tyoko besides an intent to purchase either shares or our entire enterprise."

Hiroto gave her a grin, "I see." He glanced at the others sitting at the conference table, six older women and three older men spread on either side of the table with one of them that looked like they were squished to one side to make sure this end of the table was not occupied, who was looking back and forth from their much younger CEO to himself with blank faces. "I'm sure that not everyone feels this way?"

The closest board member looked at him with barely disguised disgust in her light brown eyes. "Hiroto Minaka, you are a pharmaceutical company, what would you want with our technology enterprises?"

The man next to her nodded, his salt and pepper hair bouncing with the movement.

"To expand, my dear," Minaka stated with a sweet smile to the older woman, then he flicked his wrist towards the doorway where two women were standing with what looked like charts and other equipment for a presentation as in a 'come in' gesture. The women began to move further into the room dragging the equipment inside with them.

Yoshida stood up, she held up a hand for the two women to stop, who did so. "Don't waste your breath Hiroto-san, we are not interested." She lowered her hand then cocked her hip to the left, her long black hair slid over her shoulder, "we do not sell, we buy."

Minaka's smile dropped into a smirk, "yes I have heard that Yoshida has been jumping aboard the bandwagon, how many businesses have you managed to snag before myself?"

Yoshida put her hand on her cocked hip, "does that really matter Hiroto-san? We both deal in different specialties, that we both are very good at, why would we move out of those wheelhouses?"

Minaka smiled at her, "it's called evolution, Yoshida-san. Without it, we as humans stagnate and unfortunately, we as a society have been stagnating for quite some time, it's time for a change."

One of the older women cleared her throat, "excuse you Hiroto-san, I think you may have confused society with yourself, Yoshida Enterprises has not reached a stagnate position, we are constantly updating and creating new technology, there is no flatlining in store for us for a very, very long time."

Yoshida nodded her head, "Aina-san speaks the truth, Yoshida Enterprises continues to evolve and to grow. I thank you for showing up Hiroto-san but we do not wish to waste your time any more than we already have, please let our receptionist show you out." Yoshida nodded to the young man who stood to hold the door for the guests from the corner of the room.

The two women who had followed Minaka into the room frowned at the dismissal. Minaka pushed up his glasses from the middle of the frames with two fingers, "ah, thank you for your time Yoshida-san, hopefully, your mind could be swayed differently at a later date. I will leave my number just in case." He pulled out a business card from his fashionable white trench coat and set it on the tabletop before motioning to the two women to head out. "Farewell, Yoshida-san and Board members." He did a mock salute then followed the women out of the conference room.

The young man at the door gave a shallow bow before shutting the door behind him to lead the guests out of the building.

Silence returned to the room, Yoshida retook her seat then she looked at her fellow board members each in the eye, "Thank you Aina-san and Mari-san for participating." Her mouth was a flat line, "you know of my opinions on this matter, but as board members, you each get a say in how we move forward with our company, what are your opinions on this matter?"

Aina sighed, "Suzue-san, I do not think selling would be in our best interest."

"Nor do I," the man with salt and pepper hair shook his head. "You have been trained by your parents since you were two to take over this company and selling would just take away all that proficiency you had gone to international schools for. I do believe with just the new numbers from this month alone we do not to lean on any other company to continue growing."

Suzue nodded her head, "thank you Haru-san. I do wish to live up to my parents legacy by taking this company to greater heights then it has previously been at. I do not plan on stagnating, nor do I expect you to plan on it."

An affirmative was mumbled in answer from the other people at the table.

"Very well, then let us continue our meeting." Suzue crossed her legs under the table and picked up a remote for the giant television screen on the wall opposite from where she was sitting. "Tanaka Incorporated has agreed to sell."

* * *

"Have a good night, Yoshida-san." A young man nodded her way from the receptionist counter as she walked past.

She stopped, turned, and returned the nod with a smile, "You as well Itou-san." She then turned back around to continue heading to the front doors of the building, her heels clicking on the nice white marble tile. She nodded to the security guard stationed at the front doors, "Goodnight Matsumoto-san."

Matsumoto gave her a smile while he opened the door for her, "Goodnight, Yoshida-san."

She walked out the door then towards the private parking lot that sat to the right side of the multi-floor building opposite of the parking structure on the left side. The wind tugged at her long straight black hair, her bangs going straight up before falling practically perfectly back down on her forehead. She tugged her suit coat further around her to combat the sudden chill that ran down her spine, her briefcase hit the side of her thigh lightly and she sighed. She got to her car, tugged the keys out of her pocket to unlock it then placed her briefcase inside the sleek black vehicular.

Instead of getting into the car, she frowned feeling eyes on her. She straightened from the front door to look about her, there wasn't anyone to be seen, most of the cars had already left the parking lot as she was one of the last ones to leave today. She looked towards the street to see traffic moving pretty fast with a few pedestrians walking on the sidewalks. Her frown lowered a bit more as she couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching her. She looked back over her shoulder to be met with nothing but beautiful landscapes surrounding the private parking lot. She shook her head then leaned her side against her car. She was being ridiculous.

She stood back up while throwing her shoulders back to crack her upper back before she slid inside her car. Her keys still in her hands went into the ignition. She closed the door as the car started up. She slipped her seatbelt on before moving the gears into reverse to get out of the parking lot. She pulled out slowly. She then switched into drive as she went slowly to move to merge into traffic at the parking lot's exit. As she did she glanced out of her rearview mirror to met smoldering gray eyes. She slammed on her brakes before she could slide out into traffic, quickly switched into park, then turned her entire upper body backward to get a better look out of her rear window. She blinked then shook her head at not seeing anything at all, "Suzue you're losing it. Maybe you shouldn't have had that last cup of tea." She muttered to herself turning back around before switching the car back to drive. She moved into the street when traffic allowed for it, then sped up to match the traffic around her.

A man dressed in black with an orange scarf wrapped around his neck frowned as he watched her car get lost in the traffic. He took a step back into the shadows surrounding the parking lot.

* * *

Suzue slowed down to pull into a three-story parking structure that was connected to a six-story apartment building on the left. She came to a stop before the gates that blocked off the parking lot from the public, off to the side was a keypad, she lowered her window to punch in a seven-digit gate code to get into the parking area. She rolled her window back up as the gate raised. She pulled forward inside the parking structure then headed to the top floor. She then pulled into the parking spot with 6110A written on the parking curb. She put the car into park then cut the engine. She stretched her hands above her head and let loose a big yawn before unbuckling. She reached over to grab her briefcase from the passenger seat. She opened her door, twisted to put her feet on the ground, a sigh left her. She glanced to her side to the giant opening that let her see to most of Tyoko, her eyes landed on the tallest building that was lit up pretty spectacularly. MBI was a beautiful building to look at during the night hours. She sighed again hung her head, she wasn't sure if she had done the right thing telling Hiroto Minaka to shove it with as much class as she could earlier, the thought made a smile grace her lips but it quickly dropped. She got up out of her car then locked it behind her, she needed to think of something else.

She made it about five feet away from her car when her hair on the back of her neck stood straight up, a shiver went down her spine. She stopped in mid-stride to look over her shoulder then around her. "Hello?" She called out spinning around towards her car. She was met with silence. She turned back towards the elevators with an uneasy feeling curling in her stomach. She picked up her pace to get to the doors. She kept glancing over her shoulder as she got to the elevator doors then again as she pressed the up button.

A hand grabbed her wrist and spun her around, she let out a scream as she dropped her briefcase to grab the offending hand to try to pry the long fingers off of her wrist. "What are you doing?" She asked the rather handsome man that had grabbed her, she couldn't get him to let go even with using her nails to dig into his fingers. She met his gray eyes and stopped breathing for a second, those were the eyes she had seen back at the office.

"You're my Ashikabi." The man rumbled with a soft look on his face, his eyes were burning her insides making her breathing hitch and stumble.

It took her a bit too long to register what he told her, "You're Ashi-what?" She stopped struggling, her fingers still curled under a few of his own on her wrist.

"Ashikabi." He stated, taking a step closer to her, she took one backward as her back hit the closed doors to the elevator. She could feel the machine moving from one floor to the next. He was boxing her in.

"What's that?" She asked trying to will the elevator to open so she could get away from him before he did anything to her.

"It means that I'm yours." He leaned down close to her face, whispered the words against her lips before sealing them. Suzue forgot how to breathe. She was nearly blinded by a white light that exploded from his back when their lips touched. She froze starring at the pair of white wings that unfolded from the white glow, he pulled back from her lips, she watched as the wings faded with the light.

"What." She swallowed, "What just happened?"

"You gave me my wings." The man stated plainly keeping her caged in at the doors with his body. He was looking at her softly, it made butterflies flutter in her stomach.

"I-" She closed her mouth again, unsure of what to actually say to that.

"Come, I will explain." He took a step back from her, he let her wrist go to curl his hand around her unresponsive fingers that still held his. He bent down to pick up her briefcase from the ground. The door dinged above her then opened nearly taking her balance with it. He held her up for a moment then helped her into the elevator. He watched her press the six on the floor choices.

Suzue looked at him in wonder and confusion, "What are you?"

He glanced at her from the corner of his eyes, then closed his eyes with a sigh, "I am a Sekirei."

She blinked, "A what?"

"Sekirei." He repeated without opening his eyes.

She frowned, "You know you aren't very good at explaining anything." She tugged a little on her had that he still held, he opened his eyes to look at her, "I don't know what's going on, you kissed me without even telling me your name or what on earth is going on."

He frowned, "My name is Mutsu number five and you are my Ashikabi."

She shook her head, turned to face him as the elevator started to move to the sixth floor. "Number five?" She questioned, "I still don't know what an Ashikabi is." She stressed.

He tilted his head a little to the left a little confused. "You are an Ashikabi, the only human who could give me my wings, I thought that this was obvious."

She sighed and closed her eyes, tilting her head back. She could feel his confusion radiating off of him. "I do not know what you are talking about." She opened her eyes to met his head-on. "I'm sorry Mutsu." She saw his pupils dilate when she said his name, a warmth filled her chest then she suddenly felt slightly tongue-tied.

"Ashikabi-sama." He stated quietly with something warm and bright in his voice that made her cheeks warm with the sincerity.

She shook her head, "No I'm Suzue."

He stepped closer to her, leaned down to tuck his forehead against hers, "Suzue-sama."

She felt whole, light, a bit like she was flying, "Just Suzue." She whispered feeling all at once as if she had finally found a home.

* * *

"It's not much, but that's all I had." Suzue sat next to Mutsu at her dining table with two bowls of homemade stew.

Before he could answer, the television screen in the next room turned on and static came through the speakers.

"What the." Suzue got up to walk into the other room, on her screen sat the image of Hiroto Minaka smiling through the screen. "Hiroto-san." She said coldly. She felt Mutsu walk up behind her, his fingers lightly touched her waist.

"Yoshida Suzue!" Minaka greeted, "Number Five!" He gave a comical wave. "Congratulations on finding your Ashikabi."

Suzue straightened up, "what's going on?"

Minaka paused in a rather comical way, he looked like she had brought the wind out of his sails, "Mutsu, I thought you would have already explained this by now!" He put his hand to his chin in a thoughtful position before rubbing the tip of his chin slightly. "Right as of now you must have noticed that Mutsu isn't human."

Suzue narrowed her eyes at the screen as she took a seat on her coffee table close to the TV, Mutsu trailed behind her but didn't take a seat instead stood off to the side of her. "He called himself a Sekirei."

Minaka nodded, "That is what he is, he is a Sekirei brought down to earth by the gods to compete for love." He singsonged to her, both his hands were clasped under his chin. "They came here to find their Ashikabi, their other halves. The people who complete them." He did a dramatic sigh, "Isn't it just romantic?"

Suzue frowned then crossed her arms under her breasts.

Minaka dropped the act for a moment and looked seriously into the camera. "This is top secret, you may not tell anyone about this. Violation of these rules will result in termination. I do hope you have a good night." With that said the TV winked off and Minaka's face was no longer staring back at her.

"Well, that did a little better at explaining what you are and what is going on." She mumbled to Mutsu.

He sighed as he placed a hand on her shoulder, "He wants us to fight until the last Ashikabi and Sekirei stand, they can then ascend to spend eternity together."

She looked up at him to focus on his eyes, she could swear she felt contentment and _love _pouring from him into her soul, it warmed her from the tips of her toes to the top of her head. "That sounds amazing." She admitted with a smile, her heart fluttering in her chest. She chuckled, "So an Ashikabi is like a soulmate?"

Mutsu gave her a small smile, "Pretty much."

She reached up to curl her hand around his that still rested on her shoulder, "Eternity would never be long enough then."

* * *

**3077 words**

**I hope everyone has enjoyed this so far. Please leave a comment so I can have a bit more motivation to continue.**

**Anyways, obviously, this world is AU. Yoshida Suzue is a new character as there will be more new characters added to both fill out the unnumbered and unmentioned Sekirei. I do not plan on keeping this storyline very close to Canon, something will still happen but others not so much.**

**Timeline wise, this would probably be right at the beginning when a lot of the Sekirei are still going through their adjustments.**

**Please Review!**


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